Prince Carl Philip presents the Polhem Prize

On Monday 18 November, Prince Carl Philip presented the Polhem Prize at a ceremony held in the Norra Länken road tunnel.

The Polhem Prize is Sweden's oldest award for technological innovation, and is awarded every other year by the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers. This year's prize was awarded to artist and inventor Petra Wadström for her life-saving Solvatten water purifier. Petra had the idea for the water purifier while living in Australia when she travelled to Indonesia, where a lack of clean water is a major problem. The jury's reasons for awarding the prize were as follows: "Her invention is apparently simple, but brilliant. It helps to resolve a globally growing — and in many places acute — problem: a lack of clean water." Petra won 250,000 kronor and the Gold Polhem Medal. During the evening, the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers also presented prizes to the winning team in the Swedish Technology Championships, Hilbert's Paradox from Lund University's Faculty of Engineering. The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers also presented the Wimanska Prize to Emil Nämgren for the best degree project of the year at university level, and the Little Polhem Prize to Fredrik Schaufelberger for the best degree project of the year at Master of Engineering level. Find out more about the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers here.